


Don't You Bring Me Down, Today

by writesthrice



Category: Far Cry 3
Genre: M/M, Suicidal Thoughts, Tumblr: otpprompts, semi-attempted suicide, very sad!Jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 02:00:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3433592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writesthrice/pseuds/writesthrice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From OTP Promts: 'Imagine person A is feeling suicidal because they feel that no one would even care if they died. Looking down from the place that they intend to jump from, they decide to give the world a final chance to prove someone cares by dialing a random number on their phone. If no one answers, they will jump. The number they dial just so happens to be person B’s number. How person B reacts to person A’s explanation is up to you.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't You Bring Me Down, Today

**Author's Note:**

> I fell in love with this prompt immidiately and had to do something about it. Ended up being one of the largest single-chapter things I've posted. *shrugs* I might add another chapter to this at some point, just to further explore this. Also, slightly graying Vass is my sexuality. As in, "Oh, are your straight, bi ...?" "No, I'm slightly graying Vaas." *nods*

Jason stood on the roof of his apartment building. He wiggled his bare toes, curling them over the verge of the shitty foot-high safety ledge, watching the sidewalk below him. It was a long way down.

A half dozen times in the past month he’d walked the same path, getting a little further each time. This time, there was only one last step to go.

The breath was catching in his throat, but he ignored it, dashed the tears from his face, and looked up. The sky was city-dark, that unusual cross between nighttime black and bright lights. It hurt like a bruise. He wished he could see the stars.

Jason sighed and began to empty his pockets, tossing apartment keys, wallet, random gum, and thirty cents onto the concrete of the roof next to his shoes. He hesitated when his cell phone should have joined the rest of the shit he was leaving behind. The screen lit up at his touch, helpfully providing the time as 2:13 AM and reminding him that no one had texted or called him in three months.

Who would? He was broken. Didn’t matter. Was nothing more than a bother. Still, he couldn’t face the finality of the phone joining the pile.

“Fine. I’ll dial a random number, if no one answers, that’s it. The sign that not even the universe gives a shit.” He murmured, flinching at the sound of his own voice.

He dialed the local area code and the rest of the number was plucked from the air.

There was an answer after the first ring.

“Hello?” The voice was male, lightly accented with a Spanish purr.

“Hi.” Jason’s voice was small. Still not necessarily proof the universe cared, just cause someone answered.

“Who is this?” The voice was vaguely puzzled, but not irritated. In the background, music was thumping, just far enough away to be unobtrusive.

“Nobody. I don’t matter.” Jason could hear the note of pathetic desperation in his own voice, the grate of his exhaustion beneath it, but couldn’t stop it.

The line was silent for a moment, but Jason knew the man was there, could almost hear him analyzing the situation. “What are you doing, Nobody?”

Jason opened his mouth to lie, to tell him whatever and get off the line. To get this over with. “I’m going to kill myself tonight.”

“Why?” That puzzlement was still there.

“No one cares.”

More silence. A breath. “Where are you, Nobody?”

“I’m on a roof. Why?”

Through the phone, Jason can hear the music getting quieter, could hear the sounds of the other man walking down the street, a car hissing past.

“Address, hermano. Give me an address.”

“Why? Why should I?”

“Because, I’m going to come kick your ass into your head. Fuck. Come on, Nobody, don’t be a pussy, you know why. Tell me where you’re at.”

Jason hesitated, his heart pounding in his chest. The man was coming to find him. He had to sit down, legs now dangling over the edge of the roof. He gave the stranger the address in a shaky breath.

“So, Nobody, what’s your real name?”

“Jason.”

“Jason,” the stranger murmured into the phone, and Jason was glad he hadn’t jumped yet, just to have been able to hear his name in that voice. “I’m Vaas,” he added softly. “Now, talk to me Jason. Tell me about yourself.”

Hesitantly, he did. He spoke about his favorite foods, his favorite colors, skirted the issue of his family, ignored that he had once wanted to be a photographer, just kept everything neutral. Vaas answered in kind, but pressed, hard, when Jason tried to escape the question of family.

“I just. I don’t _have_ any family!” Jason was getting irritated. Why didn’t this asshole get the hint he didn’t want to talk? He didn’t bother asking himself why he didn’t just hang up.

“Bullshit. I refuse to believe you sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus.”

Jason actually snorted, caught off guard, and finally, quietly, admitted, “They’re all dead. All of them. My parents, my brothers. I don’t have a family _anymore_.”

Vaas was silent for a long moment, and then there was a gentle click, and the hum of the dead line. Jason looked down at his cell phone in horror. Had the other man just hung up on him?

“Turn around, idiot,” that voice growled softly from the darkness. Jason turned slowly, still seated with his legs dangling over the deadly drop.

Vaas was there, shorter than Jason had imagined, well-muscled in chest and arms, wearing a dark wife beater and jeans. His age, probably into his mid-thirties compared to Jason’s late-twenties, surprised Jason the most. It didn’t matter, though: Vaas was oozing with sexy, his dark hair spiked into a mohawk that was graying in places. Vaas was giving him the same look-over, and Jason was suddenly aware of his greasy hair and wrinkled clothes. It had been days since he’d bothered changing clothes. When did he last shower?

“So, Nobody, are you going to just sit there?”

“What?”

“Come on, then.” Vaas strode forward, stopping a few feet away to shed his shoes and started empting his pockets.

“What are you doing?”

“Aren’t we jumping, hermano? Aren’t we killing ourselves tonight?”

“I am.” He ignored the waver in his own voice. “Why would you?”

“I can’t just stand here and watch you jump. And I bet you’d say I couldn’t stop you. So I’ll just join you.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Why not?” Vaas gave him a pointed look. “If I begged you not to jump, you’d give me your excuses: I don’t know you, I can’t possibly understand your life, why would it matter to me, blah blah blah. Right? I present the same excuses to you.”

Jason stared slack-jawed at the stranger, who crossed his arms over his chest in triumph.

“That’s what I thought. Either we’re putting our shoes back on like civilized human-fucking-beings and you let me take you home, or we’re both jumping to our untimely deaths, and that’s that. You choose.”

Jason managed to shut his mouth. Guilt gnawed at him. He couldn’t let this man, this stranger, kill himself just because of him. Why did he call him?! All he had to do was jump, and everything would have stopped. Tears were once more running tracks down his face. This was all his fault.

Strong arms slipped around his middle and pulled him gently onto the roof, that well-muscled chest pressed fully against his back, and the feel of the other man’s heart beating against him decided him. “I guess we’re going home, then.”

“Good,” Vaas’s voice was a purr that brushed his neck. He tightened his hold, pressed closer, hugging him properly. “My place or yours?”

Jason thought about the pathetic mess his apartment had become, unwashed laundry and dishes piled high, the actual stink of sadness clinging to everything. “Yours. Definitely yours.”

“Good. You can use my shower, and then I get to dress you.” Vaas let go of him with a smile, turning him around gently, and giving him a closer look. “Maybe I can feed you, too?”

Jason smiled, mouth quirking. He knew he looked frighteningly skeletal. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Vaas pulled Jason into a hug, tucking the taller man’s face down into his shoulder. His voice was quiet, brushing across the younger man’s skin, “I’ve been where you are, and I promise, I _promise_ , everything will be better. Starting right now. You will never be alone again, Jason. You’re not nobody.” Vaas tucked his cheek against Jason’s head, tears sliding into the other man’s dark hair. He could feel Jason’s hands clenched into his shirt, feel the shudders of sobs ripping through the man. “You’re safe, okay? Got you right here.”

Jason shook in Vaas’s arms, adrenaline and terror and relief spiking through him. He’d really almost jumped. Left his fate up to a random string of numbers, and would have jumped if not for this stranger who’d walked forty-five minutes and climbed twelve flights of stairs to get to him. Well, _something_ out there cares about him, that’s for sure. Or, at least _someone_. Probably the someone wrapped around him right this second, actually.

The younger man sniffled into Vaas’s chest, and smiled. For the first time in a long time, he didn’t feel so alone.


End file.
